Eye on kids

Everybody loves children. That was the buzz that dominated The Indian Express-presented Third Eye Asian Film Festival August 21-28. From a...

Everybody loves children. That was the buzz that dominated The Indian Express-presented Third Eye Asian Film Festival August 21-28. From a Talibanised Afghanistan8217;s Osama to Iran8217;s cute little The Children of Heaven, child-driven subjects won hands down.

If a Chinese boy8217;s revenge on a judge for taking a bribe from his parents Judge Mama kept the audience riveted, a blind child8217;s wanderlust in the Iranian landscape Colour of Paradise touched a chord too. And the icing on the cake came as National Award-winning Marathi film Shwaas8212;about a boy8217;s fight against eye cancer8212;had many in tears.

8216;8216;Mine is not a children8217;s film actually. But everyone relates to the child8217;s trauma,8217;8217; admits Sandeep Sawant, Shwaas8217;s director. 8216;8216;People empathise with children in agony.8217;8217;

Interestingly, almost all festival films about children depict these little ones as victims of calamities8212;man-made or natural.

Osama lives under Taliban8217;s terror, whereas The Children of Heaven has a nine-year-old boy Ali going crazy after he loses a pair of his sister8217;s shoes. And in Colour of Paradise a blind Mohammed shows courage to live a normal life.

8216;8216;My film reminds us of what the Taliban did with Afghani people, including children,8217;8217; explains Siddiq Barmak, Osama8217;s director who got the idea of the film from a letter in a newspaper.

The letter talked about a girl who was dressed up as boy by her family and sent out. 8216;8216;A film like Osama generates interest because it pricks your conscience, it makes you ponder,8217;8217; explains Mukesh Sharma, director of Mumbai Doordarshan.

nbsp;	Major Minor Flicks

		nbsp;	8226; Osama explores the life of a girl who is dressed as a boy 8226; The Children of Heaven is about the struggle of two kids to cope with a crisis 8226; Shwaas poignantly portrays a child8217;s fight against cancer 8226; Colour of Paradise describes a blind child8217;s efforts to live like a normal child 8226; Judge Mama tells how a child takes revenge on a judge for taking a bribe from his parents Story continues below this ad	nbsp;

Sharma, whose film on children Anokha Aspataal had won the President8217;s Award 1988, bemoans the lack of a children8217;s film culture in India.

8216;8216;Directors want to make money. Films on children don8217;t fetch much,8217;8217; rues Sharma. But for movie buffs, a story from the innocent, unblemished world of children is always fascinating.

8216;8216;Can you divide their smiles into nationalities?,8217;8217; asks Gaurav Sharma, a retired school teacher. 8216;8216;I adored Majid Majidi8217;s Children of Heaven and Colour of Paradise. I wish Indian film-makers had made such movies about children.8217;8217;